The fabrication of drop-forged articles of low-alloy steel having a carbon content of less than 0.6% has been proposed heretofore in the art and in such processes, a steel blank is heated to a temperature above the A.sub.C3 point, subjected to forging and controllingly cooled. With respect to the forging step, this generally is carried out with a degree of forging of 10 to 80% or more. The shape change in percentage form during forging is the ratio of the cross section of respective surfaces in the working direction before and after forming, i.e. forging.
Controlled cooling, of course, refers to the cooling down of the forging following the forging operation from the forging heat (see Berchem and Wilkus "Eine Einmalige Hitze Genugt" in Konstruktion & Design, Feb. 1983, P. 32-35).
The cooling speed depends basically upon the selected alloying components and their proportions.
The prevailing thinking in the field is that the steels should be heated to forging temperatures which invariably lie above 1100.degree. C.
The desired mechanical properties (tensile strength, elongation to break, elastic limit or yield point) can be varied by variation of the cooling velocity. However for a given alloy steel it is not possible to exceed a given yield point without detrimentally affecting the tensile strength and/or the elongation to break. The type of steel which falls under the aforedescribed definitions is, for example, the material identified under German Federal Republic standards as C38BY.
For this material and for other low-alloy steels having a carbon content less than 0.6%, it is highly desirable to have high yield points or elastic limits without detrimental effect upon tensile strength or the elongation to break and this has not been possible heretofore.